is a Japanese manga series created by Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura (manga artist)

is a Japanese manga artist. She is mostly known for Saint Young Men and Arakawa Under the Bridge.-External links:...

. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine Young GanGan starting December 3, 2004. An anime adaptation by Shaft

Shaft (company)

is a Japanese animation studio founded on September 1, 1975 by Hiroshi Wakao. They are best known for their unique use of gags and references notably in Pani Poni Dash!, Maria Holic, Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei, Hidamari Sketch, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Bakemonogatari series.- History :Shaft was...

 was broadcast in Japan between April 4, 2010 and June 27, 2010 on TV Tokyo

TV Tokyo

is a television station headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , a blend of "terebi" and "Tokyo", it is the key station of TX Network. It is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime...

. A second season, titled Arakawa Under the Bridge*2, aired in Japan between October 3, 2010 and December 26, 2010.

Plot

Set in Arakawa, Tokyo

Arakawa, Tokyo

is a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan. The ward takes its name from the river, the Arakawa, though the Arakawa River does not run through or touch the ward. Its neighbors are the wards of Adachi, Kita, Bunkyo, Taito and Sumida. In English, the ward calls itself Arakawa City.Arakawa has...

, the series tells the story of Kou Ichinomiya, a man who has accomplished everything by himself. Ever since he was little, his father has taught him one rule: to never be indebted to another person. One day by accident, he falls into the Arakawa River

Arakawa River

The is one of the principal rivers flowing through Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. The point of origin is on Mount Kobushi in Saitama Prefecture, and the Arakawa River empties into Tokyo Bay, spanning 173 kilometers. The drainage basin covers 2,940 square kilometers...

 and almost drowns. A girl by the name of Nino rescues him and, in return, he owes her his life. Unable to accept the fact that he is indebted to her, he asks her about a way for him to repay her. In the end, she tells him to love her, beginning Kou's life of living under a bridge. However, as Kou starts to learn, Arakawa is a place full of weirdos and all of the people living under the bridge are what society would call "denpasan".

Characters

Kou is the future owner of the Ichinomiya corporation. He is 22 years old and a university student before living under the bridge. Throughout his life, he has been living under the family rule of never being indebted to anyone. After nearly drowning in the river, he started a relationship with his savior, Nino, because it was the only way to remove the debt of saving his life. He is named by the village chief, but the villagers usually call him "Ric" ("Riku") for short. If he becomes indebted to someone but cannot repay them, he'll start having an asthma attack. Even since he was little, he has received the best education, learning how to play multiple instruments and earning a black belt in karate. Kou took the option of staying in the "villa" rather than Nino's house when he moved into the village, not knowing that the "villa" was the empty top of a pillar under the bridge. He quickly remedies the situation by building himself a proper apartment at the location. His job in the village is to be the teacher for the village's children. Due to his upbringing and his sudden intrusion into life under the bridge, he is exasperated at the nonsensical happenings that the others would consider normal.

A mysterious girl who lives in Arakawa. She is a self-claimed Venusian and later Kou's girlfriend. The origin of her name comes from the sweatsuit that she always wears that has the tag on it. She is an incredible swimmer and can stay submerged for several minutes. With this skill, Nino commonly goes fishing in the river and it is her job in the village to provide fish for the residents. She often forgets important information and often needs Kou to remind her. Her home is constructed of cardboard, with the entrance sealed by a large curtain. Her lavish bed is made out of velvet, although she chooses to sleep in the drawer under the bed. If she becomes frightened or angry, she'll pull her sweatsuit over her head and climb on top of a streetlamp.

The village chief is a self-proclaimed 620-year-old kappa (despite him obviously wearing a green kappa costume). As chief, anyone who wants to live in the village has to get his approval and have him give the person a new name. His face changes when he is running very fast, as shown in the village's annual race. It is unknown if he is faster than Shiro, since every year, he always loses interest in the race and drops out by default. Using the excuse of preparing for the trip to Venus, he tricked the villagers into building him a villa under the river. He seems to have some secret and is protecting Nino.

A 24-year-old singer and a self-proclaimed superstar. He is in love with Nino and is always jealous of Kou for their relationship. Under his star mask is a moon mask and under that is his real face, which has red hair. When he becomes depressed, he'll start calling himself a starfish. He likes to go to the nearby convenience store and buy cigarettes. Four years prior, he was a top-notch singer and supposedly constantly topped the Oricon

Oricon

, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...

 charts. But he was bothered by the fact that he could never come up with his own songs. While battling with this feeling, he met Nino and realized that what he wanted was music that he created himself. His job is to provide music during special events in the village, but his songs' lyrics are mostly weird and complete nonsense. His name literally means "Star."

A strong man that dresses like a nun. Twenty-nine years old and British, Sister is a war veteran with an affinity for artillery and always has a gun with him. He has a scar on the right side of his face, whose origin is unknown. Every Sunday, he holds a mass

Mass

Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

 that usually lasts only a few seconds in the church under the bridge. This involves having his congregation run to line up, firing his machine gun in the air, and asking if anyone did anything wrong. If he gets no response, the service ends and everyone present gets a bag of cookies. It is unknown what would happen if anyone has done something wrong. Strangely, while Sister is dressed as a Catholic sister, his church is adorned with an Orthodox cross

Orthodox cross

The Orthodox Cross is a variation of the Christian cross and is commonly found in Eastern Orthodox Churches. The cross has three horizontal crossbeams, the top representing the plate with INRI, and the bottom, a footrest...

. Under his robe is a military outfit from his days as a soldier. He may still believe himself to be in the middle of a war, as he lays down booby traps all the time and is shown to always be thinking in terms of military strategics. He is in love with Maria, who he met during the last war he was in, whose insults are the only things that can unnerve him, causing his scar to open up. Surprisingly, he is good at making cookies and other sweets.

A cordial, 43-year old man who is obsessed with always stepping on a white line (since he believes he will have to marry a white cornish if he doesn't, something he fears above anything else), therefore he always walks around pushing a line painter so that he always has something white to walk on. According to him, he has had this obsession six years prior to the start of the series and has not seen his family since. His real name is and he used to be an office worker at a major corporation before he started living under the bridge. He does not have a job for the village though. He is married to a wife who understands his obsession and has a high school-aged daughter. Though usually polite with everyone in the village, he is shown to be fiercely competitive; he spends the entire year training for the village's annual race, because "it's the only time [he] gets the spotlight." It is hinted that he may be the strongest person in the village. During the village's Sumo Wrestling competition, Sister and Maria, both being war veterans and heavily experienced fighters, and the Chief, a self proclaimed kappa and the reigning master of Sumo Wrestling at the village, all forfeited when they saw Shiro obsessively chanting his determination to stay in the shikiri-sen, the two white lines at the centre of a Sumo wrestling ring. His name literally means "White."

and are a pair of young boys in sailor suits who wear metal helmets. Like Hoshi, they are jealous of Kou's relationship with Nino. They are self-proclaimed espers, saying that they have psychic powers and that their helmets are so that they won't float away or be detected by the military, with the unfortunate side-effect of them being unable to use their powers. The only powers they have said they have so far are flight and the ability to travel through time and space. Their jobs are being in charge of the hot baths in the oil barrels.

A young red-haired girl who grows vegetables for the village. The epitome of a klutzy girl, she is literally dangerously clumsy, often turning what should be a simple accident into a massive disaster. Despite an allusion to mishaps, P-ko is still intent on getting a drivers license so that she can travel further during Winter to gather seeds. Kou is strongly against this and in their argument, he learns much to his horror that she already possesses a motorcycle license. It is implied she has a crush on the village chief.

Maria is a pink haired woman who runs a nearby farm where all the Arakawa residents get their dairy and produce from. While having a beautiful appearance, she casually passes out incredibly harsh insults to other people and is a sadist. She met Sister during the last war that they had and was an opposing spy that tried to get information from him.

Stella is a little blonde girl from an orphanage in England that Sister ran. While initially thought to be small and cute, she is a powerful fighter and sometimes speaks in a threatening tone to show her superiority. When she is angry, she has the ability to turn into a giant and look extremely masculine, very closely resembling (and also often parodying) Raoh

Raoh

is a fictional character in the Fist of the North Star manga franchise by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara. He is the eldest of four honorary brothers who trained alongside the protagonist Kenshiro in the ancient assassination art of Hokuto Shinken...

 from Fist of the North Star

Fist of the North Star

is a Japanese manga series written by Buronson and drawn by Tetsuo Hara that was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1983 to 1988, spanning 245 chapters, which were initially collected in a 27-volume tankōbon edition by Shueisha...

. She has a crush on Sister, which made her hostile towards Maria.

Kou's strict father, who adheres to his family's rules and looks down on Kou.

Kou's secretary. After his wife left him, Takai became Kou's secretary in one of his companies. He became inspired by Kou and his words and becomes quite fond of him. It is also heavily implied he has a romantic infatuation with Kou.

Takai's personal assistant. Although she is Takai's assistant, she takes orders directly from Seki Ichinomiya without Takai's knowledge. She has a crush on Shiro.

Last Samurai is a typical samurai character who runs a barbershop under the bridge, capable of cutting everyone's hair in a matter of seconds. He comes from a samurai family and the sword that he has was an inheritance passed down from his ancestors. Before he started living under the bridge, he was a famous hairdresser that captured the hearts of all his female customers. At the time, in order to prevent them from turning around and looking at him, he needed to put eye covers on all of them. He listened to all the comments of his female customers and felt that he had lost his way as a hairdresser. One night, he went to the bridge to swing his sword around and suddenly met the chief. After a brief conversation, his samurai blood boiled up and he regained his confidence.

A man with a parrot head. He was formerly a member of a yakuza group and was well respected among the people. However, he fell in love with the wife of his boss. He would occasionally say very cool things, which usually makes Kou and Hoshi scream "aniki".

A woman in a bee suit who implies she has thousands of husbands and children, though is also in a 'forbidden' relationship with Billy. Before she started living under the bridge, she was the wife of a yakuza boss. She had an affair with one of the members in the group, who was Billy. She owns the village's salon.

A self-proclaimed defender of Earth who believes it is under threat from Venusians. He is actually a manga artist under the pen-name Potechi Kuwabara. He wanted to do sci-fi manga but was forced to draw moe manga by his editors.

An Amazon warrior who lives in the Saitama district who, along with her henchmen who wear tengu masks, defend the secret Amazonian treasure, which is really some Saitama sweets. She'll sometimes change her personality between a gruff Amazoness and an annoying teenage schoolgirl.

Manga

The manga is written and illustrated by Hikaru Nakamura and serialized in Square Enix

Square Enix

is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...

 bi-weekly seinen

Seinen

is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters...

magazine Young GanGan. As of July 2011, the serial chapters have been collected into 12 tankōbon

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

, with the first one released on August 25, 2005, and the eleventh on October 25, 2010.

Volumes list

Anime

The original manga was adapted into a 13 episodes series by the studio Shaft

Shaft (company)

is a Japanese animation studio founded on September 1, 1975 by Hiroshi Wakao. They are best known for their unique use of gags and references notably in Pani Poni Dash!, Maria Holic, Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei, Hidamari Sketch, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Bakemonogatari series.- History :Shaft was...

 and is directed by Akiyuki Shinbo

Akiyuki Shinbo

, born September 27, 1961 in Fukushima, Japan, is a Japanese animation director. Shinbo started his career as an animator in 1981 at Studio One Pattern. He then made his directorial debut with Metal Fighter Miku in 1994. He is most notable for his involvement in a number of Shaft works since 2004...

. The anime adaptation was announced in August 2009, aired on TV Tokyo

TV Tokyo

is a television station headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , a blend of "terebi" and "Tokyo", it is the key station of TX Network. It is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime...

 between April 4, 2010 and June 27, 2010. A second season, titled , aired in Japan between October 3, 2010 and December 26, 2010. NIS America  announced that they have licensed the first season. The first season was released in a Blu-ray/DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 combo set in July 2011. In November 2011, NIS America announced they had licensed the second season, setting the release date for February 7, 2012.

Television drama

A television drama adaption will be released on July 26, 2011 on TBS and July 30 on production company MBS.

Live-action film

A live-action film adaption of the manga, starring Kento Hayashi, Mirei Kiritani

Mirei Kiritani

-Filmography:*Hanazakari no Kimitachi e *Otomen *Kimi ni Todoke *Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac *Snow Flake *Usagi Drop *Gyakuten Saiban...

, Yu Shirota

Yu Shirota

, born December 26, 1985, is a Japanese-Spanish actor, most known for his role as Kagurazaka Makoto in the Japanese television drama live-action adaption of Hana-Kimi, Kunimitsu Tezuka in the Prince of Tennis Musicals, Tuxedo Mask in the Sailor Moon Musicals, and as Kei Shinjo in Rookies...

, Natsumi Abe

Natsumi Abe

is a Japanese singer and actress, a former member of Morning Musume, and currently a member of Dream Morning Musume.-Career:On August 13, 2003, she released her first single, "22 Sai no Watashi," which means "Me, 22 years old," just a few days after her 22nd birthday...

, and Nana Katase

Nana Katase

is a Japanese actress.Katase portrayed Kiyomi Takada in Death Note: The Last Name. She also released a number of albums. "Fantasy" was one of her songs and it was in the third intro of Hikaru no Go. It was part of the "Galaxy, Telepathy, and Fantasy" album and after "Necessary" was made as her single...

, will be released in Japanese cinemas in the spring of 2012.

Further reading

External links

• Arakawa Under the Bridge at Square Enix
  Square Enix
  is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
  
   
• Arakawa Under the Bridge anime at Starchild
• Arakawa Under the Bridge anime at TV Tokyo
  TV Tokyo
  is a television station headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , a blend of "terebi" and "Tokyo", it is the key station of TX Network. It is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime...
  
  
• Drama website (MBS)